This brings back memories. I actually queued for these the first day they appeared in the UK, and I learned to feed it without looking, so I could secretly tend to it in my pocket at meetings. These days, everyone in the meeting would be openly checking Twitter. That's progress.

If aliens ever visit the earth, they will no doubt puzzle over many of the things that we do. One of the things that they might struggle to understand is the Tamagotchi, a virtual digital pet that was popular with the pre-teen set in the 1990s. This tech toy was incredibly popular, and was the cause of many tears, and much confusion from adults as to why children cared about the death of an animated character.